Sunday, 18 August 2013

An Islamic studies and Asian civilisation course, compulsory for
students in Malaysia’s public universities, will also be mandatory for
all private university students – including those at foreign branch
campuses – from 1 September.

Amid controversy over the course content, Muhyiddin Yassin, Malaysia’s
deputy prime minister and education minister, said the move was intended
to “streamline the requirements” of private and public universities.

Vincenzo Raimo, director of the international office at the University
of Nottingham in the UK, which has a branch campus in Malaysia, said the
subject was being made compulsory across the board, including at
foreign branch campuses.

TITAS, as the religion and civilisation course is known by its Malaysian
acronym, has sparked considerable debate within the country,
particularly among non-Malay communities.

Critics have called on the government to make the subject non-compulsory
for non-Muslims; Malaysia has significant Hindu, Chinese Buddhist and
Christian minorities, many of them attending private universities
because of restricted places at public institutions.

Just over 60% of Malaysians consider themselves to be Muslim, according to official census figures.

Consultations on TITAS have been held with private universities and foreign branch campuses over the past year. Malaysia hosts eight foreign branch campuses and has just over 50 private universities and more than 400 private colleges.

In a written parliamentary reply on 11 July, Yassin said foreign
students in private institutions would also be required to take
Malaysian studies and Malay language courses. At Nottingham University’s
campus in Malaysia, three hours a week will be allocated to the
compulsory subjects.

Previously some students who had already studied TITAS could be exempt.
“There are no exemptions under the new regulations,” Christine Ennew,
provost of the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus, told University World News.

“Like other institutions in Malaysia, we have been delivering teaching
in areas related to TITAS for some considerable time and already have
significant capacity in this area, but we will need to scale up
provision, and this will have significant cost implications.”

The subjects already taught at Nottingham’s branch campus include
Malaysian studies, moral or Islamic studies and Bahasa Malaysia, the
national language.

“We delivered these subjects to students as a supplement to the standard
curriculum,” Ennew said, adding that the purpose of the courses was to
provide students with some grounding in the national language, an
understanding of the country’s history, and awareness of religious and
moral debates.

But some academics have said that the use of many Malay terms in the
course could make it particularly difficult for students who do not
speak the language.

Controversy

Since July the issue has become highly emotive, with some critics
accusing the government of ‘creeping Islamisation’ and pandering to
Islamist groups that support the government.

Although the government’s stated aim is to promote national harmony,
they are concerned that the focus will be on Islam and that students
risk being taught by religious fanatics with little exposure to other
religions.

Islamic groups in turn accused the critics of being ‘Islamophobic’.

The Ministry of Education insists the claims that the course contains
Islamic elements and is unsuitable for non-Muslim students are
inaccurate. TITAS also tackles “Malay, Chinese, Indian civilisations as
well as civilisations of the future", the ministry said in a statement.

The subject is already being taught on a compulsory basis in the
Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak on the Island of Borneo, where
non-Muslims attained excellent results according to the ministry’s
higher education department Director General Morshidi Sirat, quoted by
the official Bernama news agency.

“It is about comparative Asian civilisations as well as the good and common values,” he said.

Member of parliament Ko Chung Sen, of the multiracial opposition
Democratic Action Party, urged the government to withdraw the compulsory
TITAS requirement. He cited the country’s constitution, which states:
“No person shall be required to receive instructions in or of a religion
other than his own.”

“How would this improve one’s studies to be a doctor, lawyer or
engineer? Why would this be necessary here in Malaysia?” he asked in a
press statement last month.

Others have argued that since TITAS is taught in Malaysia’s primary and
secondary schools, there is little need for it to be mandatory for
university students.

Compulsory vs elective

Gan Ping Sieu, vice president of the Malaysian Chinese Association,
which is part of the ruling Barisan coalition, said the course should be
made elective instead of compulsory, “as is the practice of top-ranked
universities in the world.

“To make study of a single religion-civilisation compulsory for
non-followers of that religion-civilisation is a step backward from
national harmony. The ministry should instead introduce the general
studies of all major religions-civilisations in secondary schools to
promote better understanding and goodwill amongst our younger
generation.”

Mahaganapathy Dass, higher education bureau chair of the Malay Indian
Congress youth organisation, said that if the intention was to provide
students with some exposure regarding civilisations, the current focus
on one civilisation should be reduced and more emphasis given to others.
A new syllabus should be drawn up after discussion with academics,
experts and teachers, he said.

Making TITAS compulsory “shows that there is a fear that it won’t be
popular in the first place. Bureaucrats are scared that if a course is
initiated and its undertaking is voluntary, classrooms would be empty
save for a dedicated few,” said Aerie Rahman, a Malaysian student at the
School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, who took
TITAS classes while an undergraduate law student at Malaysia’s Universiti Teknologi MARA.

When he studied the subject four years ago at the public university, “there was some Islamic bent”, Rahman told University World News.

Even if the syllabus has been changed since then for private
universities, Rahman said, “I don’t think it is appropriate for foreign
or non-Muslim students, or even Muslim students. Students at university
are not looking for what TITAS is offering. It is not useful to
students, who need skills to secure a job on graduation.”

TITAS has been compulsory in public universities since 2006, although
marks are not included in the cumulative grade point average that leads
to a degree award.

Education ministry officials have said private institutions can decide how to assess and grade students.

“There is a specified curriculum which indicates the broad areas to be
covered. We are in discussion with the ministry about a range of
flexible delivery options and we are particularly interested to explore
integration with other elements of our curriculum,” Nottingham’s Ennew
said.

She added that the subject was “potentially of value to a ‘global
citizen’ because it will help them understand modern geo-politics and
its implications for their future working career. The skills elements
included in the new diet of compulsory subjects is also one that is
relevant to student employability.”

Academics who spoke on condition that they were not named said it was
unlikely the government would withdraw the course – but there was still
some scope for adjusting the content.